1. Field Of The Invention
This invention is directed to improvements in a food carrying device in ovens, and more particularly, to an improved spit for a rotisserie oven.
2. Background Of The Prior Art
Rotisserie ovens generally include a food carrying device, e.g., a spit or a basket, extending between a rotatable element.
In spits in general, a rod typically extends across, and is mounted within, the cooking chamber. The spit is either mounted directly to the walls of the cooking chamber or mounted to a rotatable element within the cooking chamber. When mounted to the walls of the cooking chamber, the spit itself is rotated by a motor. Accordingly, the spit has a rotary motion within the cooking chamber. Alternatively, when mounted between rotatable elements such as discs, rotational power is imparted to the discs, and the spits follow an orbital path in the cooking chamber.
In either method of mounting, the spit has food arranged along its axial length. For example, processed poultry, which has a cavity at either end (i.e., the head end and the rear end), is mounted on the spit by skewering a plurality of poultry in succession through the cavities until the spit is full. Alternatively, several poultry are skewered in succession through the sides thereof until the spit is full. After the spits are loaded, they are placed in the cooking chamber, and the poultry is cooked. When cooking is completed, the oven enters a HOLD mode in which the food is maintained at a predetermined temperature less than the target cooking temperature. Similar to the loading process, the spit is unloaded by removing the entire spit from the cooking chamber and separating the poultry from the spit in succession. However, when only one poultry product is need for sale or processing, the entire spit must still be removed from the cooking chamber. Thus, in addition to the single poultry product to be removed from the spit, all of the currently unneeded poultry on the spit are also removed from the cooking chamber. After the single poultry product is removed from the spit, the spit with the remaining poultry thereon is returned to the cooking chamber whereupon the HOLD mode of cooking is again resumed. Accordingly, prior art spits, which have a plurality of poultry thereon, require unnecessary handling of the poultry which is not yet needed for sale or processing.
In addressing this concern, some rotisserie ovens employ baskets as opposed to spits for carrying the food. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a prior art food carrying device as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,515, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference. According to this design, the food carrying device 50 includes a first rotatable disc 52a and an opposing second rotatable disc 52b. Extending between and mounted on the rotatable discs 52a, 52b are a plurality of baskets 54. Poultry products 56 are aligned within the baskets 54. The baskets are each pivotally mounted on the rotatable discs 52a, 52b at a pivot point 58. As the rotatable discs are rotated, baskets 54 follow an orbital path through the cooking chamber. Since the baskets are pivoted at one point, the baskets 54 are always oriented such that their bottoms 59 are substantially parallel with the bottom of the cooking chamber.
While baskets 54 permit the poultry to be loaded and unloaded one at a time without removing the respective basket from the cooking chamber, rotisserie ovens employing baskets still suffer from several drawbacks. For example, the heating elements in the cooking chamber are often disposed at the top thereof. The baskets, since pivoted on the rotatable discs 52a, 52b, maintain the poultry in the same relative orientation throughout the orbital revolution, i.e., the bottom of the drumsticks 60 always face downwardly. As a result, the top portion 62 of the poultry is closest to the heating elements, which are typically arranged at the apex of the revolution. The bottom halves of the poultry, on the other hand, have less exposure to the heating elements. Consequently, the poultry is unevenly heated and the top thereof cooks faster than the bottom.
In addition, orbital rotisserie ovens have the incidental benefit of self-basting. In particular, fat and grease from the food product at the upper portions of the rotational path drips on the food product at the lower portions of the rotational path. However, since the baskets pivot, they must be spaced from one another around the periphery of the discs to accommodate the pivotal movement. Otherwise, the baskets would interfere with each other's pivotal movement. In prior art rotisserie ovens employing baskets, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,515, the spacing between the baskets creates gaps at the bottom of the rotational path. Accordingly, some of the grease dripping from upper baskets falls in the gaps between adjacent lower baskets. Therefore, some of the juices that might otherwise be used for basting are lost through the gaps.
In order to overcome these and additional disadvantages of prior art spits and baskets used in rotisserie ovens, the spit according to the preferred embodiments has, among other things, a plurality of food carrying devices along the length thereof.